Berlin migration policy: The refugee city of Tegel is shrinking, the pressure on the neighborhoods remains

Things have become a little quiet around the task force for refugee accommodation in Berlin. And when there was some news, it was met with little acceptance by many residents of the capital because refugees were suddenly moving into their neighborhoods.

Now the committee, led by Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) , Senator for Integration Cansel Kiziltepe (SPD), and the Coordinator for Refugee Accommodation, Albrecht Broemme , and a whole host of other senators behind them, has some new news to share. And not everyone will like it either.

Albrecht Broemme, Senate-appointed coordinator for refugee accommodation in Berlin Michael Kappeler/dpa

The new resolutions are based on the declining number of refugees in Berlin. Therefore, the refugee city on the site of the former Tegel Airport is to be reduced in size.

Today, only about 2,950 people are accommodated in Tegel – six months ago, there were more than 4,000. On Tuesday, the task force decided in an internal meeting, the results of which are available to the Berliner Zeitung, to reduce Tegel's capacity to 2,600 places.

The facility is intended to comply with the guidelines of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which will come into effect next summer. According to this, all asylum seekers and refugees relocated to Berlin must undergo the CEAS screening process within 72 hours. This includes identification and health and security checks.

In contrast, at the other former inner-city airport, Tempelhof, up to 1,100 additional places are to be created in wooden residential containers.

So far, the use of Tegel has only been agreed until the end of the year. Now, starting next year, the emergency shelter is to be converted into a registration center for all arriving refugees, with a five-year guarantee.

Overall, the Senate's new plans envisage a general rethink regarding refugee accommodations in general, and Tegel in particular. According to information from the Berliner Zeitung, future accommodation will be differentiated as precisely as possible between refugees with and without prospects of staying.

The former Tegel Airport has long since become a refugee city, the largest facility of its kind in Germany.

People with a prospect of remaining in the country—for example, those with a residence permit as a war refugee from Ukraine or those with a prospect of asylum—will largely be housed in shared accommodation. These include the so-called modular housing units (MUFs) that have been built or are currently being built in several locations throughout the city.

Refugees who are required to leave the country and have no prospect of staying – i.e., without any prospect of asylum or other residence permits – are to be distributed among existing container villages in the city and in the rebuilt Tegel center.

A new asylum arrival center is being built in Tegel. The current facility on the site of the former Karl Bonhoeffer Psychiatric Hospital in Wittenau will have to be closed for several years for renovation. The goal is to ensure that people do not stay there for more than a few days, according to the statement.

Perhaps the gradual downsizing of Tegel is slowly but surely resolving a long-simmering conflict within the state government. The accommodation has been a bone of contention since the beginning of the coalition: The SPD, led by Senator Kiziltepe, consistently wanted to downsize the refugee center and close it in the medium term, citing the oppressive crowding and the difficulties in integration. Instead, more so-called decentralized accommodations within the city were to be used.

The CDU advocated for the expansion of Tegel, given the long-standing increase or at least stagnation in refugee numbers. However, the party rejected further decentralized accommodations. The experience with large-scale facilities like a former hotel in Hohenschönhausen was – and still is – too poor, and the population is protesting against them because the surrounding infrastructure is not designed to accommodate so many new residents.

Prime Minister Kai Wegner and his CDU were originally in favor of expanding Tegel. Sebastian Gollnow/dpa

And it's precisely on this issue that the conflict between the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) could intensify. According to Tuesday's resolutions, the state of Berlin is providing funding to equip up to 8,700 new places in decentralized facilities. This means that no accommodations in residential areas will be closed until further notice.

At the end of last year , CDU parliamentary group leader Dirk Stettner advocated for a significant expansion of Tegel, given the rising number of refugees and growing criticism from the city. "Until the federal government finally ensures that the steady influx of migrants ends, we have to accommodate the people. There's already plenty of space in Tegel. It really wouldn't be a problem to add another 5,000 places," he said.

Now the number of refugees is declining, and the new CDU-led federal government is promising to reduce illegal immigration. What now, CDU?

In his response to a query from the Berliner Zeitung, Stettner pointed out that the downsizing at the current location and the expansion in Tegel-Nord would improve the overall quality of accommodation, "which is urgently needed." Stettner stated that "we will not currently be building any new locations that have not yet been built, approved, or funded." However, as long as the number of migrants does not decrease significantly, existing accommodations will continue to be extended. Thus, the anger in the neighborhoods remains inevitable.

And in other areas, things seem to be developing differently than the Berlin CDU has previously stated. Plans to set up a deportation detention center in Tegel are off the table, according to the task force. Refugees are not allowed to leave Tegel during their registration, but this is not formal deportation detention, they said. The people are not being locked up.